A woman was driven from an inner-city bar to a private house so a man could sexually assault her, according to claims aired in a second trial over the now-infamous Mama Hooch drink spiking case.
In a police interview being played in the Christchurch District Court this morning, the woman described becoming like a “robot” after drinking at Mama Hooch in 2018.
A fourth man connected to the Mama Hooch case – the sole defendant facing a single charge in this second trial – is accused of sexually violating her. He is not alleged to have had any part in stupefying the woman.
The second trial comes after two men were found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting a number of women. (Source: 1News)
This follows the first trial of three other men, which concluded two weeks ago, where two were found guilty of drugging 17 women – often by slipping substances into drinks – and sexually assaulting 12 of them. The third man was found not guilty of stupefying and rape, but guilty of a minor charge of supplying a Class B drug.
This fourth man, who has name suppression, went on trial this morning in the Christchurch District Court and entered a not guilty plea to a single charge of sexual violation.
The two trials, which are being held separately on fair trial grounds, follow a multi-year police investigation into drink spiking at Mama Hooch between 2015 and 2018.
'I was like a robot'
Today’s trial began with a police interview from September 6, 2018, where a woman described heading out to Mama Hooch with a friend in 2018.
She told police she’d been drinking at the bar, before her memory went hazy. The next thing she remembered, she told police, was being ushered into a waiting European car by a man she didn’t recognise.
“I was like a robot I guess, I just got in,” she said in the interview.
“This is a different feeling to just having a few drinks and being quite intoxicated at the end of the night, this was out of my control. I couldn’t control what I was doing, I was quite sedate.”
The woman couldn’t recall getting out of the car but remembered, later, being on a couch without her jeans on.
Her underwear had been removed and a man was sexually violating her, she said. Another “older” man was there, hovering nearby.
“I remember waking up the next day in a bed with the same guy who brought me home. My jeans were up there, my handbag was up there, and my top was still on,” she said.
A third man entered and got into the bed, she claimed.
“I just remember saying, ‘stop, get out’, but not very forcefully, I felt sedated,” she said.
The trial is expected to take two days before Judge Paul Mabey KC.
The evidence continues.
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